Katie Grenier was told she would not be able to watch her 6-year-old daughter walk the stage at graduation.

She was diagnosed with a rare condition in her left eye that causes dangerously high pressure, dizziness, headaches and vision blackouts. Grenier, of Fairfield, started medication and drove to Portland several times a week for eye pressure exams.

The same doctor who predicted she would lose her vision suggested she get brain surgery to reduce the pressure. She declined and got a second opinion at MaineGeneral Eye Center in Fairfield.

That was eight years ago, and Grenier’s pressure is back to normal.

“I’ve been completely off my medication. It’s been two years, I believe that I’ve been off it because of MaineGeneral Eye Center,” Grenier said. “If I would have just stuck it out with Portland, I would have already had a complete shunt placed, and probably two brain surgeries at this point.”

She will lose access to her doctor when MaineGeneral Eye Center closes for good July 31. MaineGeneral Health, which owns the Fairfield eye center as well as hospitals in Waterville and Augusta, said the center was losing up to $1 million a year, driven by uncertainty over state and federal health programs and low insurance reimbursement rates. About 70% of patients have MaineCare or Medicare, said Joy McKenna, MaineGeneral Health spokesperson.

To ensure the long-term sustainability of MaineGeneral’s critical health services, McKenna said, “we have to make difficult decisions to mitigate financial losses.”

The eye center is MaineGeneral’s only specialty ophthalmology practice. It employs three physicians and 10 support staff. By the end of July, those physicians will be out of jobs. About 4,500 patients who visit the practice for routine eye care, exams and surgeries will have to look for eye care elsewhere.

Grenier and her husband had to take time off work when she had appointments in Portland because she could not drive after dilation. She said it cost her family time, fuel and about $1,600 per eye pressure test.

She’s anxious to find out if her eye doctor in Fairfield will stay local.

“If not, I’m going to resort back to losing this crazy amount of time from work,” Grenier said. “And if for some reason they’re not accepting new patients in Portland, then that leaves me not knowing how my eye pressures are.

“If I can’t get in and I can’t get back on this medication that I was on,” she said, “I could fully lose my vision.”

Ophthalmologists are medical doctors trained in eye surgery. The three positions that will be cut at MaineGeneral include a nonsurgical retina specialist; a pediatric ophthalmologist who also does adult comprehensive care; and a comprehensive ophthalmologist specializing in eye disease and cataract surgery.

Ophthalmologists can also provide routine eye care, such as eye exams, that are offered at optometry offices. Dr. Michelle Jackson, ophthalmologist at MaineHealth in Brunswick and president of the Maine Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, said routine care is in much higher demand across Maine than cataract surgery and retinal procedures.

She predicts it will be the biggest gap when MaineGeneral Eye Center closes.

Kennebec Eye Care, an optometry practice on Main Street on Waterville, refers patients to the eye center for surgery after seeing them for cataract evaluations and routine care. For now, manager Carrie Pomerleau said the facility has a 10-week waitlist.

“I’m assuming it’s going to get longer,” Pomerleau said.

McKenna said there was no waitlist when MaineGeneral made the decision to close. While the center provides routine eye care at its office at 4 Sheridan Drive in Fairfield, eye surgery takes place at the Alfond Center for Health in Augusta and Thayer Center for Health in Waterville, which will not lose any other services.

Jackson said the closure was typical of national trends.

“It was a sudden and unexpected closure, and we don’t know exactly why,” Jackson said, “but with ophthalmology, as well as many other areas of healthcare, we’re seeing continual cuts in reimbursement, and that puts more pressure on small practices.”

There are 76 practicing ophthalmologists in the society’s membership, many of whom have matriculated to larger practices and health systems. Jackson said Maine remains an attractive place for eye surgeons and practices in Bangor, Portland and Down East are seeing growth.

She said she feels confident that surrounding eye surgery practices can handle an increase in patients from central Maine. Access to routine care, however, may depend on where the three physicians end up.

“We’re hoping that some regional opportunities will allow them to continue to practice in the state of Maine,” Jackson said. “And I think we would all agree that it would be better if we’re equally distributed across the state for ease of patient access.”

Grenier said she was notified last week that the practice was closing. She isn’t ready to lose her local practice, but said she would follow her eye doctor hundreds of miles away to get the care she needs.

She plans to see her younger child walk across the stage, too.